Members of the Party Committee Standing Committee of a Certain Base of the Naval Aviation University Take the Lead in Tackling Key and Difficult Research Topics

Editor's Note: Chairman Xi has emphasized the need to play a key role in tackling major tasks, resolving prominent contradictions, and solving development problems, and to transform the Party's leadership advantages into development advantages. Strengthening the military and revitalizing the armed forces depends, above all, on the Party. Party committees at all levels occupy a dominant position, play a key role, and bear comprehensive responsibility in unit building. They must genuinely shoulder the political responsibility of leading combat readiness and war preparation, closely focus on improving the quality and effectiveness of leading combat readiness and war preparation when formulating ideas, making decisions, and advancing construction, and unite and lead officers and soldiers so that every individual thinks about the responsibility of fighting, does the work of fighting, and strengthens the ability to fight. By using the Party committee's capacity to lead warfare to drive and elevate the unit's combat power, they must ensure that the unit's entire attention is focused on fighting and that all work exerts effort toward fighting, making the Party committee a battle-hardened "central command tent" (中军帐) for combat readiness and war preparation.

Members of the Party Committee Standing Committee of a Certain Base of the Naval Aviation University Take the Lead in Tackling Key and Difficult Research Topics——

Party Committee Standing Committee Members Join the "Kunpeng Studio"

■ Liu Renfeng, Zhang Yidong

On a midsummer morning at the foot of the Taihang Mountains, a heavy-equipment airdrop training exercise at a certain base of the Naval Aviation University was about to begin.

However, after a night of rain, fog surged up and ground visibility dropped sharply.

Members of the "Kunpeng Studio" heavy-equipment airdrop research group sat before the meteorological display screens, brows furrowed, glancing out the window from time to time. Someone suggested: "The ground markers are obscured, and the night rain has generated low-altitude turbulence — should we wait a bit longer?" Someone else said plainly: "All contingency plans and algorithms have been repeatedly verified. This is a rare training opportunity."

In the midst of the discussion, everyone kept looking toward the command seat — a Party committee standing committee member of the base.

"Future battlefields are complex and ever-changing. War will not pick its day, will not choose its weather, and will not wait for us to be ready before it comes. The more complex and harsh the conditions, the better they test combat power." Weighing all considerations, this "veteran aviator" (老飞) with more than 30 years of flight experience made his decision: "Although visibility is slightly below the standard requirements for visual airdrops, it still falls within the training conditions for instrument airdrops. Proceed with training as originally planned!"

Takeoff, penetrating the clouds, climbing… A formation of several main combat transport aircraft flew to the mission airspace, and the heavy cargo platforms exited the aircraft smoothly and landed squarely in the target zone. This signified that multiple types of main combat transport aircraft at the base had achieved full-process, full-element, multi-type airdrop mission capability, that the pool of trained personnel had expanded from a small number of top performers to universal training for all personnel, and that the Naval Aviation's heavy-equipment airdrop mission capability training had been fully launched at the academy level.

Recently, a certain base of the Naval Aviation University organized heavy-equipment airdrop training. Pictured are members of the "Kunpeng Studio" research group working with flight cadets to collectively tackle training problems. Photo by Li Hanyuan.

Recently, a certain base of the Naval Aviation University organized heavy-equipment airdrop training. Pictured is the moment a heavy cargo platform exits the aircraft. Photo by Li Hanyuan.

Recently, a certain base of the Naval Aviation University organized heavy-equipment airdrop training. Pictured is the recovery of a heavy cargo platform. Photo by Zhang Yidong.

Since Party committee standing committee members joined the research group for urgent, difficult, dangerous, and arduous mission topics and took the lead in tackling them, the "Kunpeng Studio" has produced results in rapid succession. Reflecting on this mission experience, one member of the research group remarked: "With the leadership charging out front, we have both a solid foundation and the drive to push forward."

Yet this situation did not come about overnight. Previously, when the base organized research efforts for important tasks, it was essentially relevant experts leading grassroots backbone personnel to complete the work. Because the situations were complex and involved many departments, the task process inevitably encountered setbacks, and sometimes ran into obstacles and was quietly dropped. On one occasion, a certain regiment undertook a key and difficult research topic. They started out full of confidence, but actual progress was far from smooth. "This topic has no prior experience, no teaching materials, and some problems we don't even know where to begin." Several flight backbone personnel involved in the effort were somewhat dejected.

When the research effort stalled, the base Party committee leadership conducted in-depth investigations to understand the situation. "Leading combat readiness and war preparation is the Party committee's foremost duty. In the face of important tasks related to training and war preparation, the Party committee must absolutely never simply 'assign it and walk away' (一派了之)." In conjunction with deepening political consolidation training (深化政治整训), the Party committee leadership decided to strengthen exemplary guidance, implement a "one person, one topic" topic-leadership research mechanism, with Party committee standing committee members taking the lead in joining the "Kunpeng Studio," and, while heading specific research tasks, setting the direction, integrating resources, tackling difficult problems, and driving implementation — serving as both commander and combatant.

This heavy-equipment airdrop topic was led by this "veteran aviator" standing committee member.

"At first I lacked a deep understanding of 'leading a topic' — I thought I'd put my name on it first, show that the Party committee was paying attention, and then go attend to other work." He later admitted frankly that it was not until one occasion, when the research effort stalled again and several backbone personnel walked out of the aircraft cabin with their heads hanging, that another member of the leadership found him and said bluntly: "You are the topic leader, the backbone of the research effort. If even you don't take it to heart, who will put their mind into the research?" Those words were like a bucket of cold water that jolted him awake.

Measuring himself against the requirements of deepening political consolidation training, he sat down and reflected seriously: the Party committee's implementation of "one person, one topic" was not meant to give leaders an empty title, but to truly shoulder responsibility. He, as the topic leader, had to lead by example and set a model for genuinely studying and earnestly grasping the work of fighting.

Once his understanding was in order, he completely changed his attitude. Drawing on more than 30 years of accumulated flight experience, he took on the heavy responsibility of check flights. Over the course of several months, he followed the crew through dense forests, across islands, and to the plateau, going deep to the front lines to understand the real situation. He systematically compiled a list of more than ten key and difficult problems, led team members in pooling their collective wisdom to tackle them one by one, and completed the preliminary exploration of the heavy-equipment airdrop mission.

As they spoke, several mission aircraft returned in triumph. This standing committee member walked out of the control tower and went directly to the debrief room to participate in the flight debrief.

"Honestly, the leadership is very busy on a normal day, and we never expected him to be deeply involved throughout the entire process. But later, whenever we ran into difficulties, he always appeared in the team in time to lead us forward." Cui Xinxin, chief of staff of a certain regiment and a member of the research group, said.

"I am the topic leader. At critical moments, if I don't take the lead, who will? No matter how busy I am, I have to chew through this 'hard bone' (硬骨头)." This standing committee member admitted frankly that for a period of time, several tasks he was responsible for were advancing in overlapping succession, and he had the idea of "setting the research topic aside for now." Later, during a Party committee leadership discussion and analysis session as part of deepening political consolidation training, someone raised the point that "on matters related to improving combat power, leading cadres must take the lead in demonstrating a sense of urgency that brooks no delay and a sense of responsibility that says 'if not me, then who' — only then can they lead officers and soldiers to overcome one difficult problem after another." This made him flush with embarrassment and break into a sweat.

He realized that his so-called "too busy to manage" was, at bottom, a matter of insufficient sense of responsibility. From that point on, he set a rule for himself: no matter how busy he was with work at hand, he had to be present for every test flight and every key milestone of the research group.

The debrief began. "In this training exercise, completing the mission successfully under the complex conditions of variable airspace currents and a narrow release window was no small feat." "Achieving these results in the face of high-standard coordination requirements is fully worthy of affirmation"… However, upon hearing several comrades begin by discussing achievements, this standing committee member decisively halted the remarks. He told everyone that although this training exercise had produced some results, there were still many details that were not done adequately, and the debrief must genuinely surface the problems.

He then produced the airspace diagram and real-time flight data, spread out the thick training logbooks, and compared each set of core parameters — airdrop altitude, speed, release timing, and others — line by line with his fingertip, repeatedly circling and annotating several anomalous data points and critical parameters with his pen. "We must thoroughly resolve every problem and shortcoming on the ground." In the end, he established standards on the spot and put forward improvement requirements: "Heavy-equipment airdrop is unequivocally a technical undertaking. We must ensure that every set of data plays its full role."

The fog cleared, and dusk spread across the apron. After a brief and efficient on-site assessment, this standing committee member convened the research group members and launched a new round of plan optimization and deduction centered on the collected data.

Pinpoints of light traced the silhouettes of the aircraft in their imposing form, and a new research plan had already been drawn up.

——

Eyewitness Account

Leadership Taking the Lead Is Worth More Than a Thousand Words

■ A Party Member Cadre of a Certain Base of the Naval Aviation University

Liu Ji

I remember when I first joined the "Kunpeng Studio" heavy-equipment airdrop research group — looking at the stacks of technical materials and trial training plans, my heart sank. This training subject carries high operational risk, and the entire process involves a large volume of parameter calculations, equipment calibration, formation coordination, and more. It was by no means something that could be accomplished overnight. Could we overcome the difficulties? At the time, neither I nor several of my comrades felt confident.

"Let's twist into one rope — I don't believe there's a difficulty we can't overcome." That day, the topic-leading standing committee member worked late with us into the night. When chatting with everyone, these words of his inspired and moved me.

For a long stretch of time afterward, this standing committee member was almost "nailed" to the flight line — arriving with the maintenance personnel in the morning and often being the last to leave in the evening. In the debrief room, you could often see him eating bread with everyone while checking data. Under the lights, the image of the leadership focused on reviewing and analyzing data and meticulously formulating contingency response plans silently influenced the entire team and ignited our fighting spirit to overcome difficulties. I quietly made up my mind: as a member of this team, I absolutely cannot drop the ball.

No matter how many thousands of difficulties there are, they are not difficult when the leadership takes the lead and charges forward. During one test flight, the aircraft's center of gravity shifted abruptly the instant the cargo platform exited, causing violent changes in the aircraft's pitch attitude, which affected airdrop accuracy and flight safety. To solve this problem, the standing committee member took the lead in plunging into the training ground, checking flight parameters item by item with everyone, and repeatedly calculating the cargo platform's deployment positions. What impressed me even more was that he personally piloted the aircraft on multiple lead flights to explore and identify the optimal control transition point during attitude changes.

After multiple test flight adjustments and process optimizations, we ultimately mastered the aircraft pitch pattern and chewed through this "hard bone."

Since the deepening of political consolidation training, under the leadership of the base Party committee, we have kept our sights fixed on key and difficult topics, pooled our collective wisdom to tackle them, and successively broken through multiple technical bottlenecks. I have also been tempered and strengthened through one realistic combat mission after another, growing into a backbone training organizer capable of holding my own independently.

Now when executing missions, I have learned to do as they do — charging out front in everything and leading everyone forward. I can genuinely feel that the unit's cohesion and combat power have improved markedly.

(Compiled by Zhang Yidong)